Commitment to Diversity
OUR STAFF
Above all else, I want our staff to be welcoming. Everyone should feel that they belong on staff, and that they are safe in our classroom, regardless of their lives outside of newspaper. From the year that I joined, we have had a diverse community, and I have worked to foster that in the years since. In the past, we've been criticized for catering to an audience that doesn't necessarily reflect our student body as a whole. Namely, left-leaning, AP class-taking junior and senior girls. (I mean, hearing the phrase "of course it's the BluePrint" from students looking at a print issue isn't always pleasant, but it does get a message across.) This year, we're hoping to represent more diverse perspectives.
This year, of our 16-person staff, 56% of us are seniors, 18% are juniors, 18% are sophomores, and 6% are freshmen. (Chloe is our first freshman in four years!) We have conservatives and liberals, Asian, white and Hispanic Americans, a large portion of LGBTQ+ staff members, and far more boys than in previous years. Additionally, four are student athletes, three hold part-time jobs, two are in debate, two are in theater and one is in band. Our club participation ranges from leadership positions in honor societies and religious organizations to membership in everything from Literary Magazine to Chess Club.
SOURCES
Just like our writers, our sources should come from a variety of backgrounds, opinions and grade levels. Tempting as it is to just interview our friends, I often remind my staff members that while they can start with people they know (especially when asking around for specific people), they need to eventually expand their sources. Especially in cases when we interview "random" people to represent the general opinions of the student body, it is important that our sources do not skew toward any particular group.
Leah is an excellent writer, and as one of our few sophomores, she often brings in interviews with a unique perspective from what we would get otherwise. However, in this case, I noticed that she had quotes from the same student in nearly every installment of her recurring content advice column. While it is fine to quote the same person in multiple stories if their experiences apply particularly well, for an advice column of this sort, we really needed a broader range of sources.
For this spread in particular, we talked a lot about the importance of getting pictures of a diverse range of students. Michelle's story is all about how different senses of humor unite people, and the different ways that they appreciate it, so it made sense to use pictures of a wide variety of students. Michelle and I walked around campus purposefully talking to people we didn't know and taking pictures of them. On the page, there is a variety of grade levels, genders, friend groups and backgrounds.
STORIES
Best Buddies participates in annual Friendship Walk
We had done individual profiles on ESE students in the past, but at the time I wrote this, we hadn't really covered the program as a whole, or Best Buddies, a club that pairs up people with and without intellectual or developmental disabilities. While looking for story ideas, I spoke with some of the ESE counselors, who were thrilled at the idea of someone writing about one of their events, so I decided to go to a major Best Buddies event, the Friendship Walk.
Removal of pride flags raises questions
After the pride flags were removed from the theater and band classrooms, there was a lot of worry that no one would notice or acknowledge the significance of this. Once I got approval to write about it, I spoke with a lot of LGBTQ+ students who were frustrated and confused at the situation. Getting to put their experiences on our website and in print meant a lot, and assured me that writing what I perceived to be a somewhat risky story was worth it.
Antisemitism is no laughing matter
I knew that I wanted to write this story almost as soon as I joined the staff. I'd been doing a lot of reading of past newspaper articles, and I hadn't seen much talking about the experiences of any religious minority, so I decided to write about my own as a Jewish person in a mostly Christian school, especially as I noticed an increase in the amount of overtly antisemitic language and behavior on campus.
The realities for transgender students in Florida
Though there is a decently sized community of transgender students at Hagerty, we had rarely covered their experiences directly, instead quoting them for updates to legislation or news events that involved the LGBTQ+ population. For my second quarter enhanced story (a larger article with more interviews), I decided to write a feature solely highlighting their experiences and struggles. The interview process went very smoothly, as I asked around about people who were willing to be interviewed, and asked the leadership of our school's Unity Alliance (formerly the Gay-Straight Alliance) for assistance in finding students who would talk to me. While speaking with the students, I learned a lot about the transgender community, from everyday discomforts I wouldn't have even considered to major legal struggles and bullying. The principal denied publication of this article (read more about this in the Law, Ethics and News Literacy section), but I continued to try to get the story out there. I wrote an editorial on the fact that it had been censored, and contacted as many independent news outlets as I could in order to try to get it published.